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‘ A Prepper s special : Wind-up & Solar Cell Radio from Degen by Ross Tester You’ve seen those TV programs of “Preppers” – somewhat(!) eccentric people preparing for doomsday or such other catastrophic event by building nuclear blast-proof and radiation-proof shelters, stockpiling food, fuel and medicines, etc. Now Degen have come up with a small radio which will suit them down to the ground (or under it!). But the best part is that its features will suit everyone else – you don’t have to be convinced the sky is falling in! T his rather neat little “CY-1” radio from Degen offers everything you’d expect – and then some – from a small, battery-operated portable radio – such as the AM band (522-1710kHz), FM band (87.0-108.0MHz) and even the shortwave band (3.0MHz-23.0MHz). One interesting point: on the FM band, you can also select the wider “Campus Radio” band (64-108MHz) or the narrower Japanese FM band (79-90MHz). I’m not sure how useful these would be in Australia, though. Also if you decide to take your radio overseas, you can select between 9kHz (standard Australian) and 10kHz (some overseas countries) AM channel spacing. siliconchip.com.au But it also has the ability to play MP3s (eg, on a TF card) and even has Bluetooth capability – and it can also record TO the TF card from radio or from its inbuilt microphone if you want to store, well, anything! But wait, there’s more! The Degen CY-1 will operate from an internal rechargeable 3.7V/850mAh lithium ion battery (included) or from an external 5V supply (which, of course, will also charge the battery). And if you don’t happen to have an external 5V supply (eg, after the bomb, or the alien invasion, or an asteroid wiping out all of civilisation except you . . . ?) Celebrating 30 Years June 2018  77 Here’s what makes the Degen CY-1 so special: on the back of the radio is this wind-out hand crank which turns a dynamo inside, charging the battery. Or if that’s not enough, there is the inbuilt solar cell on the top, which does the same thing. Here’s where it gets really interesting! On the top of the radio is a solar cell which will power the radio and/or charge the battery (albeit rather slowly). Uh-oh, no sunlight! If you are in the middle of a “nuclear winter” or global darkness where the sun is well and truly hidden for weeks/ months/years on end (well, it could happen, according to the experts) the Degen CY-1 has another trick up its sleeve, and what a trick: an inbuilt, hand-cranked dynamo! Simply unclip the crank from its hidey-hole on the rear panel and start winding . . . and presto, human power. Mind you, you’ll need to be pretty fit with plenty of time on your hands because with a dead-flat battery, I wound it fifty turns and was rewarded with about ten seconds of radio. But of course, if you’re in your Prepper’s cave after the “event” you will probably have plenty of time on your hands! But I digress. Other features of the Degen CY-1 include a 5V output (USB socket) which will give you several hours of power for your tablet/notebook computer or mobile phone (woops, mobile phone towers will already be knocked out by the “event” – ignore that remark), a micro-USB in/out socket, headphone socket (so you won’t disturb the other cave dwellers) and (as we mentioned earlier) a micro-SD card socket (it can handle up to 32GB). And just in case there are things going “thump” in the night, there’s a bright white-LED torch PLUS a red flashing warning/distress LED (why you wouldn’t use the white LED escapes me!). And finally, there’s a rather loud distress “siren” (they call it an alert) to attract attention. Seriously, though . . . It’s fine to poke fun at Preppers and the lengths they might go to but let’s look at the Degen CY-1 as a radio in its own right, ie, for you and I in the “real” world. First, the size: it’s about 125 x 43 x 62mm – a handy size, not too large. The inbuilt speaker delivers about 600mW on maximum, more than enough for most applications. The lithium-ion battery will give you about five hours’ play time – that’s on both radio or MP3. It takes about the same time to charge from an external source (5V<at>~500mA – so com78 Silicon Chip puter USB ports will be fine as most can supply up to 1A). Of course, if you operate the radio where sun can fall on its solar cell, you’ll get much longer than five hours. Degen maintain that cranking the inbuilt generator is more effective than using the solar cell to charge. That may be so but as I mentioned earlier, it didn’t work that way for me. Then again, I hadn’t noticed the clause in the instructions to turn the radio off before cranking – so they may well be correct. To save the battery, the radio has an auto-power-off mode when you select “main menu” (which you get to by pressing the <ESC> key in any mode). The auto turn-off delay is only for three minutes. If you’re one who likes to doze off listening to the radio or music, that is a tad too quick. So you’d be much better off using the inbuilt Sleep Timer, which you can set for up to 90 minutes. There is also an alarm built in with various modes, much like you’d expect to find on your mobile phone. Incidentally, there are two rather intriguing entries (for a radio!) in the instruction manual. One is the “Text Browser (Ebook)” setting which simply says “text reading mode”. If you have text files (.txt format) you can read the file on the radio’s LCD screen. The second is the notation of “Digital Radio” following FM/MW/SW on the unit itself, the box and the instructions. These days, you would be forgiven for assuming it also receives DAB+ Digital Radio. But no, it doesn’t: I believe this simply means that it has a digital display. There is no provision for an external antenna – the 34cm whip antenna is adequate (indeed essential) for FM reception and may assist somewhat with shortwave (there wasn’t/ isn’t much on the shortwave bands when I was trying it out). The whip doesn’t do anything for AM reception which, if I must be truthful, I found at least a little lacking in sensitivity. In the city, there was no problem with local stations but even being able to select more distant stations exactly (by entering their frequency) was not overly successful. I had the opportunity to try the same thing way out in the bush with not a great deal of luck. Scanning for stations which I knew existed only found some very strong ones but direct entry of station frequency was a little better. I suspect the old bushie trick of connecting a long-wire Celebrating 30 Years siliconchip.com.au antenna to the whip with an alligator clip would do wonders for AM (and probably SW) reception (hang the impedance mismatch!). FM reception with the whip extended brought in a large number of stations – then again, look at the FM stations register these days – there’s millions of ’em! (OK, slight exaggeration). You can select FM mono or stereo if you wish (or want to listen to a weak FM station, where mono is the better choice). Apart from the frequency ranges of each band, no other figures are given. Music format The “radio” will play music recorded on the micro-SD card in the three “big” formats – MP3, WMA and WAV. Yes, there are dozens (hundreds?) of other formats available but I believe Degen have made the right choice in limiting it to these three – they’ll cover probably 95% of music tracks used today. With the limited size of the inbuilt speaker and similarly limited power output there would be no point in going for any of the more esoteric formats. I tried recording a few MP3s to a micro-SD card just to verify its operation and it was exactly as the manual suggested. There is a variety of playback functions available, such as repeat, switch tracks, etc, much as you would expect to find on a typical MP3 player. Just as importantly, there is a “graphic equaliser” built in which allows you to set the genre of music from any of six types. If your recording includes lyrics (in .lrc format) the CY-1 can display them for you – with a Chinese display if you’re so inclined! As I mentioned earlier, the CY-1 will also record to the card from either radio or from its inbuilt microphone. Bluetooth Two modes are available: you can play music files from your mobile phone (and presumably other Bluetooth devices) or you can answer and terminate incoming calls from your mobile phone. There is no information on pairing or setting up Bluetooth in the manual and at time of writing, we hadn’t the opportunity to play with Bluetooth. Calendar/Time/Timer These three functions are accessed by pressing the ESC key then the >> or << buttons. There is also a digital timer. Conclusion OK, that’s the Degen CY-1 multi-powered AM/FM/SW radio. While we started out implying it was the perfect prepper present, on using it, we found it so much more. While there were a couple of points we found wanting, overall it had so much to offer (indeed, more than we’ve reported here) that it would also make a great general-purpose portable receiver. And the fact that it can work from its inbuilt lithiumion cell, or from its solar cell, or if you’re feeling energetic its inbuilt dynamo (great if you forget to charge it!) really makes it a standout choice. It’s available direct from Tecsun Radios Australia (www. tecsunradios.com.au; phone [02] 9939 4377). Price is just $79.00 inc GST, plus postage – so with all its features, that SC makes it a very attractive package. siliconchip.com.au DID YOU MSS OUT? Is there a particular project in S ILICON C HIP that you wanted to read – but missed that issue? Or perhaps a feature that really interests you? 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Via email: silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au (24 hours a day) Via the net: siliconchip.com.au/shop/ (24 hours a day) By mail: Silicon Chip, PO Box 139, Collaroy NSW 2097 By phone: (02) 9939 3295; Mon-Fri 9am to 4.30pm * Australia only. O’seas? email for a quote. #Visa/Mastercard only. OH NO! THE back issue YOU WANT IS SOLD OUT! DON’T PANIC AND STAY CALM! We can still help you! The SILICON CHIP website (siliconchip.com.au) houses complete issues from mid 1997 on. You can browse a preview version – and if it’s what you want, you can purchase a digital edition (complete magazine) . Full details are given where you browse the issue. And if you’re a current digital edition subscriber, there are even more attractive rates! SPEAKING OF SUBSCRIBING . . . That’s the one way to guarantee you’ll never miss an issue! Not only that, you’ll $AVE money on the over-the-counter price. Full details are at siliconchip.com.au/shop/subscriptions Celebrating 30 Years June 2018  79